I really liked making gradients using Wendy's tutorial, so I decided to use that as a jumping off point. I do some
presentations for the staff at my school and like to have different backgrounds than what people are used to. Because
Illustrator allows you to do so much with color, I decided I'd make a tutorial on how I made a new background for slides using
the knife tool, and the stylizing effects of feather and scribble. Here goes:

barrett_gradient.jpg

barrett_knife.jpg

barrett_feather.jpg

barrett_scribble.jpg
I forgot to mention, see the pretty glow the feathering causes?

barrett_final_product.jpg
If anyone has their own web page, you could also use this technique to make a header for your website if you knew the size
of the space (which most blog and other sites tell you if you are making a custom header). You could use school colors, etc.!